


Waterspell

by soymilkteas



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 3rd year of highschool, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, Iwaizumi is only there briefly, M/M, Slowburn for a oneshot, Volleyball does not exist I am so sorry, aquarium date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25162126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soymilkteas/pseuds/soymilkteas
Summary: It's the summer before during their last year of high school and ex best friends Kyoutani and Yahaba haven't spoken since junior high. Yahaba becomes a regular at the cafe Kyoutani works at, causing Yahaba to invite Kyoutani to an afternoon with the fishes.
Relationships: Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69





	Waterspell

Kyoutani didn’t know his Saturdays would be spent with his old childhood friend who recently became his regular customer at work. The once sunny and caffeinated aroma which filtered their usual interactions were now replaced with watery blues and shadowy diluted textures of marine life and families attending the new aquarium in the city. He turned to Yahaba, looking intently at the jellyfish dancing in the water, the aquarium lights reflected off his cheekbones and made his hair look silver overshadowing an envious moon. Yahaba turns to Kyoutani and smiles causing him to plunge into a cardiovascular shark tank. Breath hitching leaving his lungs, floor escaping his soles. He suddenly remembers he’s supposed to be annoyed with him and tries to recall how he ended up here.

Yahaba was never one to express his true intentions through his face but you could hear a hint of anything and everything when he spoke. Kyoutani on the other hand, was the opposite. His punch hit before his words were comprehended and somehow, unsurprisingly, it only made sense he and Yahaba would be inseparable all throughout elementary and junior high. The duo weren’t necessarily friends until junior high but you couldn’t mention one without the other. They were hard to miss wherever they went. Fighting each other or other people, teasing each other, laughing until their stomachs hurt and tears left their eyes. The important thing was they were together and always together. They knew each other the most because they were okay with not knowing everything about the other. Their respect for their friend’s boundaries was second to none and if all else failed they knew they had each other. They were a good team. At least until the end of junior high.

“Venti iced coffee with oat milk for Yahaba,” Kyoutani announces, placing the drink on the counter. He scanned the lazy morning crowd looking for the usual face who picks up his drink every Saturday morning after his daily jog. He spots Yahaba walking towards the counter, smiling at him as always.

"Thanks," Yahaba said.

“Whatever," Kyoutani was not having Yahaba's comments today. There was something about Yahaba's familiar smile and the way he looked at him that made Kyoutani’s stomach ache a little. Something about how they were too familiar to ignore but too estranged to go anywhere farther than handing off a drink.

Yahaba laughed, took his drink, saying a "Yes sir, have a great day" with a dismissive wave and a smile and walked to his regular table to play games on his phone.

This was their usual interaction every Saturday morning. Worst day of the week in Kyoutani's opinion which he verbalized to his supervisor who was also his close friend. Iwaizumi has told Kyoutani he can switch schedules but somehow, without apparent reason, Kyoutani objected. His excuse being it a nice switch from his evening shifts on the weekdays which are usually louder and draining which is the honest truth. Although it's not a coincidence Kyoutani comes to work earlier on Saturdays alone and meticulously cleans and looks after a particular area of the cafe nearby Yahaba's table.

"Hi there, come to check out the view?" Yahaba says to Kyoutani as he approaches the window next to him, rag in hand and disinfectant in the other. 

"I came to get rid of garbage in this area but he's still not finished his drink," Kyoutani's eyes flicked to the half-full drink on the table next to Yahaba's wrist and flicked to the other boy's eyes for a moment to catch a reaction. Yahaba only smiled and took out a piece of paper and scribbled on it while the other boy rolled his eyes and continued to do his job.

It would be a lie if Kyoutani said he wasn't curious about what the hell his former best friend had scribbled down and silently stowed away in his pocket but he continued to wipe away at the non-existent spots on the glass. Even if he saw it he couldn’t read his usual chicken scratch anyway. His eyes made quick glances to see if Yahaba was about to say something. He didn't. Suddenly annoyed, Kyoutani finished his last window and went back to the counter, calling out drinks, and taking orders. He makes the occasional glance at Yahaba's table. His annoyance grows and makes itself known when he takes the orders of the poor customers trying to have a peaceful morning. The barista absent-mindedly moves to the espresso machines to make drinks and fiddles around with the syrups so the labels show. Once the shift began to slow down, he fiddled around with the pen in his apron pocket, twirling it as if the pen decided his fate. His hand was getting sore until he was told someone was at the counter. He turns to see the unfortunate customer.

Yahaba simply ordered a grande regular brewed coffee with room for cream to go. Kyoutani studies him for a second but he doesn’t let himself look at his eyes for too long. He doesn’t usually order a second drink but he quickly pours the coffee and hands it to the other boy. Yahaba says a quick “Thanks, keep the change!” and leaves the establishment with the coffee after handing the barista what seems to be the exact change. Insufferable. But amongst the bills and loose coins, he feels another slip of paper. The note. He gets a flash of annoyance because of the dumbass who decided to tell him via note instead of speaking to him like a normal human being but he understands Yahaba’s incapability of verbal communication and his own incapability of silent listening. He knew if a note was the best way, it was the best way. The immediate understanding and familiarity of Yahaba’s communication habits to Kyoutani was more or less conflicting. Even after two years he can’t bring himself to be unreasonable when it comes to him.

Kyoutani decides now would be the best time for a lunch break and takes his packed lunch to the tables outside, note in his apron pocket. He sits on the stone seat and before he unfolds the note in his hand, he spots Yahaba waiting at a bus stop, oblivious to his audience. The glass behind him makes him look detached from Kyoutani but what he notices is the blinding speckles of afternoon sunlight hitting his brow and surrounding Yahaba. A car alarm reminds him of his lunch break’s brevity and snaps him back to reality. He looks at the note again, unfolding it and recognizing the all too familiar chicken scratch on the page of what seemed to be ripped out of a book. He fished out another slip of paper which was sandwiched inside the flip.

_Let’s meet at the new aquarium @ 2:30PM tomorrow please? -Shigeru_

Kyoutani looked at the ticket which Yahaba stored inside the note with the address and features which came with the day pass. “Damn it,” he cursed at the bus stop across the parking lot which was now empty. He doesn’t have the words to describe his confusion or why he’s suddenly irritated to hell. Despite his annoyance, he was still going to go. He might hate the guy now but Yahaba already paid for the ticket. He had no choice right?

Now Kyoutani is at the aquarium with his ex-best friend who he hasn’t spoken to since junior high but somehow he can’t bring himself to think that way when Yahaba looks at him and points at the jellyfish like they were on their usual Sunday outings after their midterm exams. Kyoutani's usual retorts are interrupted by confusion. It’s been about half an hour and he still doesn’t know why Yahaba asked him to be here so he just stares at him. 

“What?”

“Huh?” Kyoutani’s train of thought was broken when Yahaba had abandoned the jellyfish and started walking over to him, the blues and purples shadowing his face. Kyoutani has never experienced a lunar eclipse but decided Yahaba is close enough.

They stare at each other for a second longer than they should’ve but Yahaba breaks the staring contest. “You’re just staring is all. Something on your mind? That’s new.”

“Do you ever shut the hell up?” There was no reason to react like this. Kyoutani knows but Yahaba knows more than anyone else. But his reply was a bit louder than it should have been, kids turned around and their parents led them away with a slight tug and a point to their next destination.

Yahaba comes closer, the conversation was only up to him, Kyoutani, and the fishes at this point. “You know why I asked you here right?” He chuckled through the last couple words to give Kyoutani a sense of peace but it had the opposite effect. 

“No.” Kyoutani’s bluntness flickered something onto Yahaba’s face but eased back into an ambiguous expression.

Yahaba stepped backward from Kyoutani and motioned his way to a bench facing a glass window, displaying a seemingly endless vast blue nothingness. The unknown wildlife below and the chilling uncertainty lay above just below surface level. The two boys sat down, facing the glass, waiting for anything. Yahaba turned to him.

“You know,” Kyoutani tensed at the other boy’s voice, “you can be such a jackass sometimes right?”

“What?” Kyoutani turned to him but stayed looking at Yahaba’s shoes, glaring.

“I know what you did, in junior high.”

Kyoutani’s eyes widened for a second, staring at the school blue tang which swam into view and refused to meet the other boy’s eyes. He couldn’t reply

Yahaba looked at him, but the other still wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I know you blew me off for the entirety of the second half of our last year to work to afford Aoba Johsai.”

“And so what if I did?”

“You barely came to class.”

“I know.”

“You didn’t even want to go.”

Kyoutani wished he was in the tank right now so he could have a higher chance of breathing. “People change their minds.”

“Clearly! Since you never even considered going until I told you I was going and for what? You came and you didn’t say a word! I just don’t understand why you left me without a word to apply to the same school as me if you were going to ignore me outside of your workplace.” Yahaba’s expression was hard to read in a way eyes couldn’t but Kyoutani could if only he realized his fluency in braille.

Kyoutani furrowed his brow at the glass, mouth in a straight line and his fingers tracing the smooth bench. Rigid and palm unmoving from the metal.

“I just-”

“What do you think I was doing?” Kyoutani was looking at him now.

“I-”

“You were leaving _me._ ” Kyoutani moved closer to the other boy, more irritance in his voice. “I worked my ass off for Aoba Johsai to see _you_. I-”

“Well fuck Kyoutani, I didn’t know! Maybe a heads up would’ve been nice! How was I supposed to know that you were blowing me off every weekend of our last year of junior high to work the night shift and bus tables when you were barely conscious at school to even speak to me? And working? Your parents are more than capable of affording Aoba Johsai…”

“I don’t fucking know,” Kyoutani looked away, embarassed suddenly. “By the time I got the acceptance letter, you were already getting new friends and planning things with them. It just fucking sucked. You seemed better off with them and it just pissed me off. I worked so hard for you only to lose you to people who’re probably better for you.”

“Better for me?” Yahaba echoed. “Kyoutani, for someone who blew off their best friend for months on end to get into a school your parents could already afford, you’re dumb as hell. I thought you hated me for months! If you saw me with other people it’s because I was pissed and rightfully so! You should’ve talked to me.”

“You should’ve too.”

Silence.

“Yeah,” Yahaba leaned back against the bench and put his hands on his face. “We both should have I guess.”

Another period of silence took place but it was more of a break of relief. Both boys leaned back on the bench and stared at the reflections of the water on the ceiling and listened to the lives surrounding them. They took deep breaths and sighed through their noses and groaned in unison.

“Why didn’t you just fucking tell me you were going too, man?” Yahaba put his head in his hands and looked up at the ceiling.

“Dunno. Embarrassment?” Kyoutani looked at Yahaba in the darkness but it was different. His skin reflected off the light from the tanks rather than contoured his features now. It was too bright. He looked away. “My parents didn’t want me to go.”

Yahaba was quiet and looked in the other boy’s direction, studying his posture and unripened expression.

“My parents,” Kyoutani explained “thought Aoba Johsai would be a waste of money considering my attitude towards school so I decided to study and work a little to go.”

“Why did you feel like you had to do that though?” As much as Yahaba knew why Kyoutani would work so hard to go to the same school as him, he tried not letting his ego rob Kyoutani of explaining. Maybe it was his ego which wanted Yahaba to hear Kyoutani say it with his own voice.

“It’s a stupid reason.” 

_No it wasn’t._ Yahaba laughed, “Whatever’s stupid enough for you to stick to a schedule and conform to the binds of academia should win a Nobel Prize.”

“Then congratulations, stupid.”

_Oh._

Knowing the answer didn’t quite feel the same as hearing it. Yahaba fixed his eyes on Kyoutani, trying to find words in the air like balloons escaping his heart. “Kentarou,”

“You know what? I don’t have fucking time for this. Can we just get the fuck out of here?” Kyoutani lifted himself from the bench and proceeded deeper into the aquarium, deeper and deeper, until the room was dark. Yahaba followed at his heels but cautiously, trying to keep him in sight as his vision was inky. They were in the midnight zone exhibit. 

They could hear an announcer speaking to little children on their field trip in the distance but their voices were murky and muffled. Neon speckles of light turned on as the announcer spoke as if the lights were fairies beckoning to their voice. The lights imitated the deep ocean’s fauna, crawling the walls and illuminating the two boys’ faces. Holographic angler fish and goblin sharks and vampire squid circled both of them but they felt like their feet were buried in hot sand. 

Maybe it was the darkness but Kyoutani’s breath slowed and he tried to meet Yahaba’s eyes which swirled with neon shapes and glitter. “Shigeru,” Kyoutani inhaled, exhaling, “I was not gonna be left behind by you of all people.”

“Leaving you was never part of the plan, Kentarou. We’re best friends,” Yahaba tried smiling but it appeared as a confused expression instead. “Look,” Yahaba motioned for the both of them to move through the exhibit. “I never planned on leaving you, I never planned on forgetting you. Even when you weren’t speaking to me I still…” Yahaba looked angry but only to himself “I still missed the fuck out of you and I didn’t know why when you made it clear you wanted to be left alone.”

Kyoutani followed the pathway of a holographic vampire squid under his feet and listened quietly, with his eyebrows furrowed and narrowed onto the red squid. 

“I wish you told me is all,” Yahaba laughed a bit, watching neon green eels on the walls. “Could’ve saved us so much time and heartache but I guess that wouldn’t be us.”

“Shut up, we were in junior high, we’re all stupid.”

“I think you won the prize for being the most stupid though,” Yahaba looked at Kyoutani with a growing smile. It’s been two years since they’ve spoken like this but somehow his feelings remembered how much he cared about his best friend. How much he missed him.

“You know, I hated how much work I had to do just to be in the same school as you,” Kyoutani looked back at Yahaba, an ease settling on his face, a ghost of a smile might’ve been there but it could’ve been the holographic fish. 

“You chose to do that buddy, and all that work only for you not to speak to me the entire time? Must’ve been awful.”

“Yeah, don’t flatter yourself. I might’ve worked hard to go to Aoba Johsai for you but I stayed because I wanted to prove that you didn’t control my life.”

“Who’d you have to prove that to? Because there’s nobody on this planet you need to prove anything to about who controls your life and you taught me that better than anyone I know.” The neon fishes began to disintegrate as the pathways began to get lighter and the real fish tanks were coming into view under a green hue. 

Kyoutani looked ahead, hands now in his pockets, unsure of the answer to Yahaba’s question despite it being rhetorical. After a couple of seconds of walking, he came to answer. “Me.”

“You?” They kept walking but slowed down, their eyes started to wander but they were looking at the same things. Their eyes followed their own reflections from the glassy tanks of seaweed and animals.

“Yeah,” and that’s all Yahaba had to hear to understand but to his surprise, Kyoutani kept talking. “I had to show myself that I could work hard even without you at the end point but sometimes I catch myself wanting to tell you whenever I pass a test or invite you to go to the convenience store and watch a movie.”

“Wow that’s crazy because,” Yahaba stopped, Kyoutani stops to look, “I’m the exact same.”

“We’re both so fucking stupid.”

“Absolutely, but” Yahaba starts walking again and punches Kyoutanis shoulder slightly “we’ve been thinking of each other everyday since junior high right? It’s almost like we never stopped annoying each other and that sounds like such an ‘us’ thing to do.”

“You never said that.”

“Said what?” Yahaba forced a laugh.

“That you’ve been thinking of me everyday since junior high.”

“I never said that.”

“You did.”

“Well, what do you expect when your best friend ghosts you for months and then shows up at your highschool without a word?” Yahaba huffed and tried to walk a little faster but Kyoutani grabbed at his hand and they stayed there for a bit. After a moment, Yahaba turned to Kyoutani, who quickly pulled back and shoved his hands back into his sweater pocket.

“Yeah… I’m,” Kyoutani tried looking at Yahaba again, “I’m… sorry, Shigeru.”

“Hey hey… I’m sorry too man.”

“I was the idiot you have nothing to say sorry about.”

“Look who’s being all mature, if I knew me not speaking to you was gonna make you own up to your mistakes, I’d feel less bad about not speaking to you.”

“Shut up.” They keep walking until they see the aquarium’s exit at the end of the hall, natural daylight streams through the windows as if time never passed at all.

Once they reach the exit, they wait to retrieve their bags from where they placed them prior to entering. The children are talking about their favourite parts of the exhibit while they crowd the coat area and put on their backpacks and outdoor hats. An excited child runs to their parents picking them up and accidentally bumps into Yahaba, making him trip over the rug and fall into Kyoutani against the wall.

Kyoutani shoots a glare at the child but before he could yell at them, Yahaba pushes against him to stand up properly. Kyoutani’s hand then automatically moves to push Yahaba’s hair out of the way from his face, checking if he got hurt despite the impossibility of the notion considering the low impact. Yahaba looks to Kyoutani like he wants to say something but Kyoutani simply walks to the coat area and grabs their things for the both of them, ears tinted slightly pink while Yahaba feels something flutter in his chest. Something about your former now--hopefully--current best friend admitting he hasn’t stopped thinking about you since junior high makes Yahaba’s brain go a little fritzy and his legs a little wobbly but he manages to follow him to the exit doors and outside of the building to the bus stop.

“Did you have fun?” Yahaba asked.

Kyoutani was still a little flushed but it could have been the heat. “Not at all,” but his mouth curled a bit, betraying his words.

They continue to wait in silence until the bus arrives. The bus arrives on time and they board, sitting together in the crowded vehicle. The boys try to silently compete with the other on who can stay up the longest but they end up sleeping anyways with Yahaba leaned against the window and Kyoutani on his shoulder. They both stay asleep until Kyoutani wakes up to see Yahaba aglow from the last golden strips of sunlight the day has to bless him. Knowing full well they missed his stop, Kyoutani closes his eyes and falls back to sleep and moves a little closer. When Yahaba finally wakes up he wakes Kyoutani with him because it’s already dark out and the bus was already on its second round and a stop away from Yahaba’s stop.

Yahaba looked alarmed but too groggy to express it. “Kentarou, wake up my stop’s here.”

Kyoutani feigned concern, “My stop must’ve been ages ago then.”

“It’s already late and I can’t leave you alone in the dark alone. Sleepover at my house, my mom’s home and probably won’t mind.”

Kyoutani nodded and they both waited for Yahaba’s familiar street to loom closer under the flickering street lamps. The bus now empty and the bus driver’s music fuzzed in the air as background music.

“Shigeru?

“Hm?”

“Thanks,” Kyoutani said “for inviting me.”

“Of course, what are friends for?”

Before Kyoutani could think of the answer, the bus stopped on Yahaba’s street and they both got off in silence. Yahaba watched Kyoutani’s back as he followed him off the bus, both now alone underneath the flickering lights and the suffocating haze of the exhaust from the bus. Yahaba thought back to junior high when Kyoutani was taller than him, how the white street lights looked when they reflected off of his best friend when they were buying snacks from the convenience store. Almost like a halo or moon dust. Contrary to popular belief, Yahaba always found Kyoutani calming even when he was being stupid and bullying other kids. They always grounded each other in a way other people didn’t want to know how to. Yahaba decided to walk a bit faster to walk beside Kyoutani.

“Kentarou,” Yahaba started, his hand close to Kyoutani’s hand.

Kyoutani only grunted in response but Yahaba knew he was listening.

“I hope…” He reaches for Kyoutani’s hand but finds its way back into his pocket. “I hope we’re friends for a long time.”

Kyoutani says nothing but nods, eyes flickering to their hands and back on the road. “I realize now,” he finally says “that there is no end point.”

“What?”

“We worked this hard with each other in mind, we’ll always keep improving because we’re too stupid to stop trying if it meant we might have to lose each other” 

Yahaba’s hand leaves his pocket. “We are that stupid huh?” _Reaching._

“Maybe you’re a little more stupid than me but-” _Reaching._

“Takes one to know one I guess.” 

Their hands brush.

“I guess we’re just two halves of a whole idiot then.” Yahaba intertwines his hand into Kyoutani’s and they both stare at their hands for a split second then at each other. The crickets being their only witness and the streetlights become their stage. They have a wordless agreement and continue to walk to Yahaba’s house, still holding each other’s hand the entire time. When they reach his house, Yahaba lets go to open the gate but their hands scream to go back again but they don’t. They wordlessly walk to the front door and Yahaba fishes in his jean pockets for his key which he eventually finds.

“Shigeru?” Yahaba drops his key at the sudden noise and bends down to find it in the dark pathway.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks”

“Yeah man, like I said before what are friends-” When Yahaba picks up his key and looks up, he finds Kyoutani’s face inches away from his own and stays frozen, unsure where to look.

Kyoutani stares hard at Yahaba’s eyes, like he doesn’t really know what to do either. The porch light illuminating his face like an eclipse, unsure if Yahaba was either the blinding sun or the calming moon. He decides it never mattered.

Then, he pushes Yahaba’s hair out of the way and he kisses him. Briefly, on his forehead but when he pulls away Yahaba leans over to kiss him back on the lips, both a little chapped but when they pull apart they smile because they’re back together and worlds would end before anything could separate them again.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there this was definitely a ventfic which I wrote at 2am! I hope you enjoyed it! Please comment and tell me what you think this is the first fic I've written in AGES for a show I haven't watched in a while so please lemme know what you think!


End file.
